Ellis Johnson

Ellis Edward Johnson Jr. was an American football halfback and wide receiver whose path ran from the fields of Central, Louisiana, through Southeastern Louisiana University and the American Football League, and then home again for a long second career as a State Farm insurance agent. Born on 9 July 1943 in Baton Rouge to Sarah Price Johnson and Edward Ellis Johnson, he grew up in Central with two sisters. After his father died while Ellis was still young, he took on early responsibility as the man of the house. A competitive streak showed itself even in childhood games of pick-up-sticks and jacks, where his sisters accused him of bending the rules. That will to win later carried him onto Friday-night fields, college stadiums, and the AFL.

At Central High School he was a running back for the Wildcats and graduated in 1961. He continued at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he starred for the Lions. In his senior season he was named the team's most valuable player and earned All-Gulf States Conference honors at halfback, leading Southeastern with 531 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. The university later inducted him into the Southeastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981, recognizing a college career that made him one of the program's standout backs of the mid-1960s.

Professional football followed. In 1965 the Boston Patriots selected him in the fourth round (31st overall) of the AFL Draft, while the Minnesota Vikings took him in the nineteenth round (260th overall) of the NFL Draft. Johnson signed with Boston. Splitting time between halfback and wide receiver, he appeared in fourteen games as a rookie and started three, finishing with 29 rushing yards and 29 receiving yards. Injuries limited his playing time in 1966. Contemporary reports say he left the club during 1967 training camp, ending his AFL career after two seasons; Pro Football Reference lists his last season as 1966. His family obituary describes his Patriots years as extending until 1968. Either way, his professional chapter was brief but real: a Central and Southeastern product who reached the AFL in the league's final years before the NFL merger.

When football no longer defined his days, Johnson returned to Louisiana and began what became a 54-year career as a State Farm insurance agent. He built a local practice rooted in long community relationships rather than headlines. Away from the office he kept the competitive and outdoor appetites that had marked him as a young athlete. He rode dirt bikes and raced Enduros with family, traveled the country by motorhome and Harley-Davidson, and made a habit of pointing out wildlife along the roadside so everyone else could see it too. He coached his son, played cards with family and friends, and treated gatherings, football games, and Sunday mornings as occasions to be together.

Faith and family were the fixed points of that later life. Ellis and Terry Morgan, his Central High sweetheart, married in 1962 at Blackwater United Methodist Church and later moved their membership to Live Oak Church. Their marriage lasted 63 years and grew into three children, nine grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. They built that household on Christian belief, and he took open pride in watching the family expand. He was preceded in death by his parents, his stepfather John Thomas, and his sister Cindy Johnson Fontenot, and is survived by Terry, their children Lori, Lisa, and Eddy and their spouses, his sister Linda Johnson Elenbaas, and the wider circle named in the Greenoaks funeral notice.

Ellis Johnson died on 1 November 2026 at the age of 83. Visitation, funeral, and committal were held on 9 November 2026 at Greenoaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Baton Rouge. He is remembered as a Southeastern Louisiana Hall of Famer, an AFL Patriot, a decades-long State Farm agent, and a husband, father, and grandfather whose competitive spirit never outran his attachment to home. He is not to be confused with college football coach Ellis Johnson or with later NFL namesakes who share the same common name.